President Emmerson Mnangagwa has reportedly succumbed to pressure from his special adviser and war veterans’ leader, Christopher Mutsvangwa, and allowed a re-run of Zanu PF’s Norton primary elections after the latter lost the first round and warned that his boss could face a similar fate in the upcoming presidential race.

Norton is among 10 constituencies, where the ruling party has ordered a re-run after results of the first round were challenged by the losing candidates.

Although Mutsvangwa could not be reached for comment yesterday, sources told NewsDay that his campaign team was already on the ground ahead of the re-run election, whose date is yet to be announced.

In the first round, Mutsvangwa lost to his bitter rival Langton Mutendereki by a wide margin, before he warned that Mnangagwa risked losing the upcoming general elections if his defeat was endorsed by the Zanu PF politburo.

He pointed a finger at the ruling party’s national commissar, Engelbert Rugeje, accusing him of engineering his defeat by knocking out his name from the ballot papers on the election date.

He also claimed Mutendereki was ineligible for election and had his name clandestinely added to the candidates’ list.

“It is inconceivable that the President will win given that the party’s members have been largely disenfranchised,” he said.